No one I’ve talked to, however, believes that quitting is in Bob Filner’s DNA. He’d be cutting off his oxygen supply.

Or he could have fought the increasingly credible allegation that he’s a serial sexual harasser. Got lawyered up. Sent the message to his accusers that he’d fight to the last court motion.

Or he could have confessed that he’s a flawed person and he’s reaching out for help. This is the course he craftily selected.

The message: Help me progress from schmuck to mensch.

In the end, Filner could be recalled — droves of Republicans and Dems would sign petitions in a heartbeat — but this way at least he has a shot at governing from the high moral ground for what remains of his tenure.

“It’s a good thing,” he intones, “that behavior that would have been tolerated in the past is being called out in this generation for what it is: inappropriate and wrong.”

Is the man mad?

Or is he a Mad Man, an aging Don Draper marooned in the wrong century?

This fig leaf — I am a product of my upbringing! — doesn’t fly from City Hall to Horton Plaza, let alone the vast city.

The women’s movement has been in full swing for, oh, 40 years or so. Filner is now saying he’s received the memo that women are to be respected?

Please.

Filner’s problem runs deeper than changing cultural norms.

As anyone who has worked with Filner will tell you, he’s wired to run roughshod over people.

If Filner wanted to score points, he’d have read a passage like this:

“For reasons that pass the understanding of a 70-year-old man, I am a bully, always have been. What began as a positive personality trait — confidence in my ability — has developed into a failing with an immoral, if not criminal, dimension. In the guise of joking around and enjoying life, I have taken advantage of my power and offended men and, most unforgivably, women — many women.”

Like so many pols before him, Filner admitted guilt in vague terms and begged for clemency.

Until real victims come forward and put a human face to Donna Frye’s tearful demand to resign, the mayor has blocked her move — and bought himself time.